Ticket scalpers suck

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badblue

badblue

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Tickets for the final tour of the Tragically Hip went on general sale this morning, and I don't know anyone who were able to buy tickets from Ticketmaster.

I tried for a good 15 minutes to buy tickets and was met with "Sorry no tickets match your search" each time I refreshed the site. Though it was pointless as tickets were sold out in about a minute.
But hey, stubhub, and ticketsnow and other re-sellers have 100's of tickets for sale. All for the low low price of triple the price

Right now nosebleed seats are going for about $130 usd.
 
Bots buy up all the tickets the second sales open for scalpers to resell. It is essentially impossible for you to get a ticket yourself and as long as the original seller makes money they probably don't care.
 
Ticketmaster should head-hunt the blizzard anti cheat team. Scalpels use multiple people and systems to get through the online defenses and buy in bulk.

They should have the system Prince was going to use for a concert he had planned in Sydney: buy ticket in a name, and show photo id to get in, on the night only. If the ticket doesn't match the photo id, entry won't be allowed.
 
jellies_two said:
Ticketmaster should head-hunt the blizzard anti cheat team. Scalpels use multiple people and systems to get through the online defenses and buy in bulk.
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Yeah, but it's in Ticketmaster's best interest to let bots buy all the tickets. Especially if the resale is on a Ticketmaster affiliated site (like most sports tickets are). Why would they change the system when they're making more money right now?

...I mean, I'd love to have the system changed, since I find it extremely frustrating whenever there's a hockey game or concert I want to go to.
 
To avoid this, I usually buy presale tickets to the shows I really want to go to. Most have you use a special app live Live Nation, some code given away on Twitter or an American Express card.


You could always wait until the day of the concert for TM to release all the returned tickets.
 
I didn't even force myself to get up and bother. I knew it'd be a shit show and I wouldn't get any. My friends tried, but I don't think they did, either, although they were trying to get tickets for additional shows after getting some for one show during the presale. They're actual fans, who want to go to them, though.

One was supposed to try to get me one ticket, so I could go along with him, but since I haven't heard anything I assume he wasn't able to.

I'd love to be there, but it'd be sad to see Gord on stage dealing with his illness and knowing that my Mom had something similar. I just hope they will broadcast the last show on CBC.

I may break and overpay, but I'm telling myself not to. I've seen The Hip 2-3 times in the past.
 
iMax said:
This could easily be fixed with names printed on tickets and random ID spot checks at events.
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This is how it should always be done. I hope the reason PAX Prime tickets this year for instance are being delayed is to finally do this. I don't get it. But I guess they don't care as long as they sell passes. There are tons of computers systems out there developed specifically to buy these tickets as fast as possible when they come out.
 
Here in Norway it's illegal to sell any concert/show tickets at a higher price than the price printed on the ticket itself. I guess it won't stop random people selling tickets at concert entrances for higher prices, but at least bigger companies won't have any gain by doing mass-buying and reselling anymore.
 
Nothing can or will be done widespread until ticket scalping is made illegal. Which it won't be. Because there is money to be made. And because freedom.

Freedooommm!
 
GeCcO said:
Here in Norway it's illegal to sell any concert/show tickets at a higher price than the price printed on the ticket itself. I guess it won't stop random people selling tickets at concert entrances for higher prices, but at least bigger companies won't have any gain by doing mass-buying and reselling anymore.
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It was illegal here in Ontario, Canada too, until Ticketmaster and the resellers lobbied our government to change the laws.

I Made A Scalper Drive From Mississauga To St. Catharines!


I found a scalper on Kijiji selling Tragically Hip tickets for $1700. I made him drive from Mississauga to St. Catharines...wait till you hear his reaction when he realized he drove down here for nothing.
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Too bad they only had to drive an hour.
 
Yep, this practice is total bullshit. Got screwed trying to get Tool tickets last year, decided to just not go because I wasn't willing to pay triple face value.
 
The only problem I see is that apparently the ticket prices should have been higher from the jump. Get more money going to the actual performers that way. Everything else is just whatever.
 
Does Captcha really work on bots? If so, why not implement that system on all ticket sale websites... fuck scalpers
 
When I bought Chapelle tickets there was a restriction where the credit card used to purchase the tickets had to be presented upon entering. I assume this was done to deter scalping.

Then I heard some scalpers were getting around this by using Visa or Mastercard gift cards to purchase the tickets, and then providing them to the re-purchaser of the tickets.

TheRinger just did a lengthy article about ticket sales in general today.
 
Randolph Freelander said:
Their art is business. More to the point, it's their livelihood, and it's their work. There are profits to be had, I'm simply advocating that those profits get to the right people.
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Which is easily done without fleecing people for anything you can - see the recent Radiohead tour, or the Glastonbury Festival.
 
At this point Ticketmaster should just get rid of their captchas and "Are you a Bot? Select the four images that depict a body of water" tools. Who are you kidding, Ticketmaster? You don't give a fuck.

I went to buy Tiger Army tickets a couple days ago for their show coming up on Tuesday. They weren't sold out, thankfully (I had been watching them online and they didn't sell out immediately when they went up, so I knew I was safe taking my time to buy them), but I thought the very thing I typed above when I encountered their "Anti-Bot" tactics: 'Why, Ticketmaster? Clicking on pictures of fruit is a waste of my time and doesn't prevent jackshit. Cut it out.'
 
Dart said:
Does Captcha really work on bots? If so, why not implement that system on all ticket sale websites... fuck scalpers
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Captchas are fine for most purposes, but if there's money at stake people can put in the effort to defeat them with bots. Not 100% of the time, but if your bot can get just a 10% success rate it'll be worth it.
 
The worst is Pax, announces basically randomly and gone within moments. Could solve it with some kind of ticket limit or account/registration system but who cares, $$$!!!
 
My mother tried buying Thomas Rhett tickets and they sold out instantly. Ticketmaster had scalper listings not even a minute after they sold out.
 
I bought a ticket to a Cowboys vs. Jags game in London back in 2014. Scalper was super polite and sold me the ticket for 50 pounds, 4 pounds below cost. My seat was endzone, 20 rows up.

Best time I ever had at an NFL game...and I am Murican!
 
Back in my day (pre-internet) you had to show up at a Ticketmaster ticket window in person to buy your tickets.

I think the most hardcore fans got the best seats and it was a better system.
 
jellies_two said:
This is a complete guide to scalping and ticket prices:

https://theringer.com/ticket-industry-problem-solution-e4b3b71fdff6#.wsrqzpq88

Tldr: the artists are complicit, the scalping industry lobbies to protect any attempts to tie purchases to id, you don't have a chance.
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Was going to post this also, I had no idea about most of this but I don't buy a ton of in demand tickets anyways. Good read for anyone like me that doesn't get how any of the ticket systems work.
 
To avoid this I just will not see any show where this happens, also I refuse to do business with ticket master.
You would be surprised how things turn around when fans let the artists know. Plenty of other companies that help sell tickets for shows.

But I feel your pain, it's sad.

EDIT: NIN did a fan pre sale that was very effective. You had to follow a emailed link to buy tickets, then on the night of the show you queued up at the will call window, showed ID and the card used to buy tickets and were let inside before the doors opened for everyone else.
 
Randolph Freelander said:
Getting the most that people are willing to pay is not ripping them off, it's simply good business. It's obvious that if scalpers are charging (and getting!) 2x and 3x face value, then face value is way too low. Raise prices.
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That's not entirely true; scalpers eat the cost of unsold tickets, that's part of why the ticket prices are so high.

You could raise prices by a decent amount and possibly still sell out, but the venue/artist then takes a bit of a risk.

Put the risk (but not really) on a pointless grey-market that serves no-one but the wealthy and the scalpers, and the venue/artists take no risk.

Scalpers who sell tickets at often 10-20 times the value... just think of the math for them.they also eliminate risk by colluding to massively inflate prices.

They can buy 10 tickets for $100 each, sell 2 for $600 each, and profit handsomley.

Go to all the scalping sites the day of an NFL game there are still TONS of tickets priced at hundreds or even thousands of dollars; they don't lower the prices last minute because then everyone would wait.

It's just pointless price gauging; takes incredibly minimal effort to pull off too.
 
Dirty fucking pigs.

It was crazy. Logged in under multiple devices, with multiple tabs open for the different dates and nothing. Well done Ticketmaster, Stubhub and those who aren't educated or hard working enough to get a real job and resort to profiting off of reselling tickets.

Huge TTH fan, I've seen them already 8 times, including front row center at the ACC years ago (my ears still ring as proof) but this one was different, the emotional ties and a chance to say goodbye to guys that I grew up with.

Hoping now that the CBC will air the final show from Kingston and do it properly, all about the band and the music.

I think it's a Tragically Hip and wine kind of evening. It's well worth the wait even though I'm feeling so hard done by.
 
I'm mixed on this. Being able to buy tickets as the end consumer to stuff you wouldn't have been able to get tickets before because there's so many on the second hand market is really convenient.

I just look at the prices on stubhub and use those numbers to decide how much the show/festival is worth it to me. Do I want to spend $90/ticket to see this artist in nice close up seats? Or $45 far away? Or not go and save the money. It gives me options and I like that.

That being said scalpels grabbing all the tickets and marking them up 10x is still bullshit but I've noticed that as you get closer to the show and nobody is buying the tickets for those prices the scalpels are forced to keep lowering the tickets until they hit market price. I would never buy on stubhub within the first couple of weeks tickets go on sale.
 
I actually sold some tickets through livenation since I couldn't go to a gig. I did not want to get stuck with them, I figured I would try to sell my two tickets for $50 each. I paid $90 for each one. But livenation forced me to tell it for $72.50 each (buyer sees it as $87.50). I dont understand why I couldn't sell it cheaper, they are my tickets...

It's not always the resellers fault some of the time.
 
It's unfortunate but tbh I can't blame people taking advantage of sites if it lets em (and if people are willing to pay)

As previously stated Ticketmaster doesn't give a fuck, they have the monopoly

I've luckily never really had issues with buying tickets but I've gotten lucky a couple of times. Faith No More show sold out in less than 5 minutes here in Chicago. My friend and I were both refreshing the page at 10am to grab em, he got kicked into a waiting queue, I eventually made it through to check out. He ended up not getting tickets, but luckily grabbed one closer to the show when a friend couldn't go

If you're upset about the current scalper prices then just wait. At a certain point if no one is buying them then they'll drop the prices just to get rid of them (or you'll just have normal humans selling for reasonable prices if they can't go)
 
They are parasites who make money while providing no service.
I think it's time to make tickets non-transferable and refundable, at least for big shows and festivals, they do it in some parts of the world already.
Yeah, it's going to be a bit more of a hassle for consumers, but I think it's better than the alternative.
 
badblue said:
Tickets for the final tour of the Tragically Hip went on general sale this morning, and I don't know anyone who were able to buy tickets from Ticketmaster.

I tried for a good 15 minutes to buy tickets and was met with "Sorry no tickets match your search" each time I refreshed the site. Though it was pointless as tickets were sold out in about a minute.
But hey, stubhub, and ticketsnow and other re-sellers have 100's of tickets for sale. All for the low low price of triple the price

Right now nosebleed seats are going for about $130 usd.
Click to expand...
So are you buying scalped tickets
 
Chichikov said:
They are parasites who make money while providing no service.
I think it's time to make tickets non-transferable and refundable, at least for big shows and festivals, they do it in some parts of the world already.
Yeah, it's going to be a bit more of a hassle for consumers, but I think it's better than the alternative.
Click to expand...
I would be okay with this.
 
The Outsider said:
Yep, this practice is total bullshit. Got screwed trying to get Tool tickets last year, decided to just not go because I wasn't willing to pay triple face value.
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Problem is, always going to be someone that will pay that higher price, it doesn't happen as much in the UK but its still not great, I never go to see really big groups or sell out tours so maybe that's why I don't notice it as much.
 
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